Blogs from Macau, Asia - page 17

Macau We travelled to Macau by Hydrofoil from HK which took about an hour and a half. To get tickets (HK$148) you need to go to the China Ferry Terminal on Canton Rd in Kowloon where they take cash or card, preferably the day before - they go every half hour but a few were already full. Large bags can be checked for an extra HK$75 or you can save the money and take them on. Sailing over was quite choppy and the hydrofoil almost took flight on a couple of occasions but we eventually arrived in one piece to a wet Macau Saturday afternoon. Macau’s ferry terminal is located on Taipa which is an island. We were looking to stay in Macau City which is on the mainland and linked by bridge. To get there ... read more

Macau Getting from Kuala Lumpur to Macau was pretty easy, involving a monorail, train, airplane, and two bus rides over 8 hours. Macau is our first experience with one of China's "special administrative regions" (the other being Hong Kong). Macau is listed as the world's most densely populated region at 18,428 people per square kilometre! In contrast Canada's population density is about 3.5 people per square kilometre! Macau is a strange place, and it seems to have 3 faces: Portugese colony, Chinese Island, and Casino hotspot. It's strange how you can be in the middle of a beautiful cobblestoned square complete with Portugese style architecture, then walk a few blocks and be blinded by the blaring lights of the casinos like you're in Las Vegas. Walk a few blocks in the other direction and you're in ... read more

A quick note from Macau - Macau is only an hour away from megapolis Hong Kong, so Halef and I decided to conduct a day trip to this tiny peninsula that is famous for its gambling and Catolicism. This is the only place in China where gambling is legal, so the city is packed with many Las Vegas-style casinos, notably The Venetian Macao - the biggest casino in the world, which is three times larger than its counterpart in Las Vegas. Apart from the sin city scene, Macau is significant for its early Catholic Portuguese influence - the city is also filled with many churches, with Ruins of St. Paul's to be the most distinguished landmark of Macau. That's all for now, we're heading back to Hong Kong tonight. -Cy ... read more

Breakfast was not what we had grown accustomed to and the staff in McDonalds are definitely not as friendly as Barnee in the morning! Today was culture day and we went for a nice long walk with Mark as designated tour guide. We saw some of the old portuguese churches and forts and went for a walk around the south of the island. We also stopped at the bus station to grab a ticket into China. After such a long walk we went into the centre for lunch and then wandered around the centre for a bit. Returning to the hotel we played some cards and then headed out to another casino, the Sands this time. Settling in at the bar we watched some very good dancing troups as well as MC Barry, a scouse who ... read more

We woke up at the ungodly hour of 9 in the morning and gathered all our belongings, including my sleeping bag cover which had magically been packed into my bag and which i only spent half an hour looking for!! We ate breakfast and then said our goodbyes to Barnee and left colin's house. Catching the Bus to the MTR and then switching once to get onto the next train line to get to the ferry port was a lot of fun wth all our bags, as usual!! Our next destination was Macau, a densely populated paradise which, due to its Special Administrative Region status has been turned into the equivalent of Las Vegas. Gambling heaven!!! The journey to Macau took about 1 hour and we went by high speed ferry which was great, a massive ... read more